1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a medical instrument for use with one or more surgical ligation clips. More particularly, the invention is directed to a laparoscopic ligation clip applicator for assembling and clamping a two-piece ligation clip and for automatically feeding each of a plurality of ligation clips to be sequentially assembled and clamped.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There are many types of known mechanical applicators for automatically feeding and sequentially closing each of a plurality of conventional ligation clips around a vessel (e.g., a vein, an artery, a cystic duct, and the like.) to be occluded. A conventional ligation clip is typically made of metal and is U-shaped with two extending legs that are bent inwardly by, for example, a known fulcrum type applicator having a scissors-like handle with movable jaws. The jaws close together to crimp the clip about the vessel. Such known applicators house a plurality of ligation clips and automatically feed the clips by using, for example, a biasing mechanism, to sequentially position the ligation clips to be crimped between the movable jaws. Other known ligation clip applicators include movably mounted crimping jaws, and feeding mechanisms for conventional ligation clips, that are actuated remotely through various trigger mechanisms. Such designs are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,576,166 (Montgomery, et al.), U.S. Pat. No. 4,662,373 (Montgomery, et al.) and U.S. Pat. No. 4,598,711 (Deniega), all assigned to the assignee of the present invention, and in U.S. Pat. No. 5,084,057 (Green, et al.) and U.S. Pat. No. 5,100,420 (Green, et al.), assigned to United States Surgical Corporation.
However, further improvements for applying surgical ligation clips are desirable, and in particular, an automatic ligation clip applicator is needed for use with unique two-piece ligation clips such as are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,590,937 and 5,306,283. Those ligation clips provide many advantages over known metal clips since they provide superior clamping strength and may be made of bioabsorbable non-metallic materials.